While a noisy majority hail Nintendo’s Miyamoto as the godfather of the videogame, a swelling underground has swung towards Sega’s Yu Suzuki as a man truly on top of his game.

If you take as a given that Shenmue is the finest technical achievement of a console, and Virtua Fighter is the greatest reaction-based gaming series in existence, this argument holds up pretty well.

Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution is an enhanced version of Sega’s last outing in the series and aims to counter critici ... more >>

While a noisy majority hail Nintendo’s Miyamoto as the godfather of the videogame, a swelling underground has swung towards Sega’s Yu Suzuki as a man truly on top of his game.

If you take as a given that Shenmue is the finest technical achievement of a console, and Virtua Fighter is the greatest reaction-based gaming series in existence, this argument holds up pretty well.

Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution is an enhanced version of Sega’s last outing in the series and aims to counter criticism that VF4 lacked the character balance so essential in any fighting game.

Essentially, you should be asking yourself whether it’s worth buying Evo is you already shelled out for either 3TB on the Dreamcast or VF4 for PlayStation 2. You need to know what you’ll be getting for your money and admittedly, on paper, it’s not that impressive.

You will get two new characters taking the game’s roster to 15, Brad the kick boxer and Goh Hinogami, a judo expert. Then you get about a trillion collectable items to unlock and store. And as far as surface extras, that’s about it.

However, the faces crammed around the arcade cabinets of the world will tell a different story. Admittedly, Sega released Virtua Fighter 4 somewhat early and it did come in for some hefty criticism for a lack of balance. This has been rectified, delivering what is widely seen as the most natural and finely tuned 3D fighting game of all time.

Each character has been tweaked, their move list expanded and abilities managed and tailored to their style. You see, VF4 Evo is so much more than earlier versions, it is a complete evolution in the series, bringing us a game that can be played by anyone, mastered by few.

The mechanic underpinning Evo sees totally natural-feeling, organically flowing 3D movement that is as accessible as it is deep. Three buttons, punch, kick and block, are perfectly sufficient. There is no need for further complication, that’s all the game needs.

Again augmented by the best training mode ever seen in a videogame, Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution is a blank canvas given to you by Sega. You can merely scratch the surface, or dedicate yourself to a learning process that will deliver one of the richest, and most human gaming experiences that has ever been released. << less